Music Group Gets Court Injunction Against UseNeXT
Written by enigmax on March 09, 2010Performing rights group GEMA has won an injunction against newsgroup outfit, UseNeXT. A court has forbidden the Usenet company from offering around 100 musical works from the GEMA repertoire and says that in the future, Usenet operators will have to take a greater responsibility for the environments and services they offer.
UseNeXT is a brand operated by Munich and London-based company, Aviteo Ltd. UseNeXT is one of the most popular Usenet services around today and has traditionally advertised extensively within the BitTorrent community and on many torrent sites.
On 19 December 2006, performing rights group GEMA, which handles the copyrights of more than 1 million rightsholders worldwide, filed for an injunction against UseNeXT. GEMA had earlier leveled accusations at UseNeXT’s advertising in which it said, among other things, the company claimed to offer 1 million MP3s through its service.
“[UseNeXT] advertised its fee-based access with unambiguous references to illegal exchange platforms. In particular it publicized the anonymity, speed and security of access to contents available on Usenet,” GEMA said in a statement, adding: “On top of that, the service also offers special, perfected search software that makes it easier to locate and manage musical works and other contents protected by copyright.”
On 18 January 2007, the Hamburg District Court issued a preliminary injunction against UseNeXT’s operators, which included instructions for it to change the way in which it advertised its product and barring it from providing musical works from GEMA’s repertoire. UseNeXT objected to the decision and disputed that it had ever encouraged subscribers to download copyright works, arguing that its use of the terms ‘unfiltered’ and ‘anonymous’ related to features inherent in the Usenet system.
On 17 February 2010, the Hamburg District Court handed down a preliminary injunction against UseNeXT which bars the service from offering a sample 100 musical works to which GEMA administers the copyright. The injunction also states that UseNeXT must go further than simply modifying its advertising in order to protect GEMA’s copyrights.
Although not necessarily liable for infringements, the Court said that Usenet providers would have to take responsibility for the services and environments they provide.
In a statement, GEMA said that the Court of Hamburg’s decision represents expanded liabilities for Usenet providers which go further than regulating their approach to advertising, but also apply when modified advertising proves insufficient to protect rights holders.
“The adoption of the preliminary injunction is a success in our commitment to the protection of copyright,” said Dr. Harald Heker, Chief Executive Officer of GEMA. “Second, the ruling also represents a further important step towards a comprehensive responsibility of the Usenet service operator for its offer.”
At this stage it’s unclear how UseNeXT will choose to comply with the injunction. Unlike services such as Rapidshare that operate their own servers and actually store content, UseNeXT are a reseller of the Highwinds Usenet service. UseNeXT does not store any content, Highwinds do.
UseNeXT used to offer a search engine and software interface to access Usenet, so conceivably something could’ve been implemented there to bar access to the GEMA titles mentioned in the injunction. However, recent changes to their service means they are no longer offering those solutions but suggesting the use of 3rd party software, with one particular solution from Tangysoft up front.
Nevertheless, the Court said that UseNeXT is responsible for the service it’s re-selling so the company will have to find an answer somehow. Many Usenet providers are already working with rights holders to automate the removal of content, so solutions are available. How quickly and comprehensively UseNeXT acts will remain to be seen.
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52 Responses
Good, usenext has been a scourge on the usenet scene for ages. The content will never change but if a few scam artists get put out of business in the attempt then that can only be a good thing.
@1
Who pays you to write that trash?
Your mom, why she after a refund?
Smoke good Nug piss on MAFIAA and Anti-p2p companys!!
usenet will never stop! Stop Waiting your Money!!
It’s about time those awful, profiteering spammers got their comeuppance.
EDIT! — Torrent Freak needs to add a delete or edit POST BUTTON!!!
Smoke good Nug piss on MAFIAA and Anti-p2p companys!!
usenet will never stop! Stop WASTING your Money!!
I hope usenext goes down. They suck with their stupid spam advertisements!
Usenext “Perfected” search? Don’t tell Google.
usenet is much better than torrents, that is if your willing to pay for the service. Unfortunately some people still believe that the best things are free…
Who pays for usenext anyway? There are better providers you know…noobs
Many Usenet providers are already working with rights holders to automate the removal of content, so solutions are available
what providers?
@2
you smell of trolling…id bet your on the usenext payroll.
@2
he said some bod shit bout ur mom…I wldlnt take that!!!
UseNeXT is infamous for its heavy-handed extortion techniques used against customers who try to cancel the trial or dare to ever leave the service. User comlaints have been piling up for years.
http://www.usenetshack.com/usenext-scam-review-usenet-provider/
I very much hope that UseNeXT shuts down. UseNeXT is a disgrace to all the legitimate usenet providers.
I honestly couldn’t care less about Usenet sites and what happens to them. They make money off free content and are parasites.
heh.. it’s useless.. but let them [the entertainment industry] waste money on it, in the end they’ll hang themselves in debt and only the companies that evolve will survive…
Particularly I’ve never used usenet but I do hope they can hold the copywrong fury. Bittorrent has shown some muscles till now and DC like programs have failed hard. It’s Mr Darwin acting in the file sharing end too hahahaha
Cheers, good luck Usenext.
this is all GEMA view of what the court said from whatI read the ruling is saying just changing advertasing is not enough you must have a takedown policy I like see the rulling
C’mon, they host all the warez and ignore all ‘post cancellation messages’, they can’t continue their fraud forever! They profit from the fear and paranoia spread by MAFIAA! Also newsreaders today are more noob friendly than torrent clients but still the average usenet user thinks he’s cool, leet or what :D
On a side note, almost all “niche” sites leech from usenet communities and than have their old/p2p stuff uploaded by users.
Can’t wait til gun companies start being found liable for the actions of all gun owners. Wait, that’s not gonna happen?
Also, lot of astroturfing/trolling in this thread already…
and now its the usenets, the mafiaa (or gema, brothers in arms) is catching on slow, but they still catch on. no wonder when one considers that copy right was originally intendet to make the distributors rich, and suppress the creators: http://questioncopyright.org/promise
@15 you take stupidity to a new level.
I’m kind of not surprised, as there adverts where always touting what you could download off there service.
MP3s ? Since when advertising about a file format has something to do with piracy? It’s just a format, and there are indeed millions of free (as in freedom)/public domain MP3s out there. As for speed, security and anonymity, these are perfectly normal rights in democratic countries, right? So what the hell was this judge smoking? Or is it corruption?
In case you not know UseNeXT is a rebrand of BINVERSE. The ad at the top right hand corner of this page is a scam!
“Many Usenet providers are already working with rights holders to automate the removal of content, so solutions are available. How quickly and comprehensively UseNeXT acts will remain to be seen.”
I’m sorry what the hell are you talking about TorrentFreak? There is no removal posts on Usenet – most servers do not support removal of posts. And how can Usenext act on this as they are merely a reseller – they have no control.
Shoddy reporting yet again.
“On a side note, almost all “niche” sites leech from usenet communities and than have their old/p2p stuff uploaded by users.”
Another stupid know nothing imagining how things must work and being wrong again. I guess you don’t know what affil sites are then right?
And yes, good riddance to Usenext in any case, never used them personally but the amount of reports I read are enough to convince me the’re scam artists.
I hope they go out of business permanently. A bunch of scammers is what they are. They make money by screwing people and overcharging and what not. Scum.
Which is the best anti-virus out there? I need one in order to scan what I download using bittorrent.
@15, Gargamel;
“I honestly couldn’t care less about Usenet sites and what happens to them. They make money off free content and are parasites.”
“I honestly couldn’t care less about Kazaa and what happens to it, only noobs use it.”
“I honestly couldn’t care less about Rapidshare and what happens to it, it sucks.”
“I honestly couldn’t care less about those public torrent sites that were taken down, only noobs use public sites.”
“I honestly couldn’t care less about those private torrent sites that got raided, they were all a bunch of arrogant snobs.”
…
“Hey, where’d all the good stuff go? How come there’s nothing left to download?”
The best anti-virus out there is do not download executable files off public servers as anybody can put anything onto them.
Just one more resaon public torrent sites are full of phail.
Also I hope you realise that some malware is not detectable by avti-virus or firewalls, good luck with infecting your system – not that you prolly even know about it though lol. Nubs.
Here’s some complaints by people in UK who claim to have been scammed by UseNeXT:
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/182690-cci-legal-aviteo-ltd.html
If UseNeXT believes you didn’t cancel the trial properly (like if you never received an email of your login details then there’s no way to cancel) They’ll hunt you down and try to nail you for 100 EU (+ collection fines) for something you never even used, and if that doesn’t work then they’ll send debt collection agencies after you – sometimes years later. UseNeXT admits they do this.
UseNeXT has been reported to authorities in both UK and Germany for their abusive business practices, but they use the alibi of the fine print buried in their TOS contract, which it seems many people never read.
UseNeXT used to brazenly advertise themselves as a (safe) music download service, so they must have some good lawyers if they escaped having to pay a big financial settlement.
Wow, making money off other’s work. These people truly have no moral compass.
#31
In b4 loser!
I don’t like USENEXT, filesharing shouldn’t be about money.
And they have been spamming and lying to suck p2p users into their pay2leech scheme for many years now.
Paying for pirated content is just lame. Screw commercial piracy!
And this is not comparable to what torrent sites do. USENEXT knowingly hosts pirated content and advertises their pay2leech scheme on p2p sites and ed2k servers. This is one form of piracy that I can’t support.
@neostyles
Doesn’t your beloved MAFIAA do exactly the same thing?
@28.
Would be perfect world. The scene would exist without any leaks and all you public p2p whores wouldn’t have access to all this stuff that you don’t deserve and only moan about anyway.
@ AngryPirate
“I don’t like USENEXT, filesharing shouldn’t be about money.”
That’s OK then because Usenet is not filesharing you know nothing. Usenet is impossible to run without a paid service if you want complete coverage. People are prepared top pay for the service because it pisses all over any kind of torrent site: all files are the same high speed regardless of age, files are up faster after pre and there is just way, way more content – current over 600 TB and increasing all the time.
“And they have been spamming and lying to suck p2p users into their pay2leech scheme for many years now.”
Debatable but I’ll give that to you for arguments sake.
“Paying for pirated content is just lame. Screw commercial piracy!
And this is not comparable to what torrent sites do. USENEXT knowingly hosts pirated content and advertises their pay2leech scheme on p2p sites and ed2k servers.”
Usenet is not a filesharing system. It is exactly comparable to what torrent sites do in as much as individual users upload copyrighted content and others download it. Usenet providers have nothing to do with uploading any content – why should they be held responsible exactly if torrent sites are not?.
Usenext is not a provider (try reading the article next time). They DO NOT KNOWINGLY HOST A THING – THEY ARE A RESELLER. Usenet providers are not responsible for content and do not knowingly host pirated content. If you use this argument then all torrent sites should have exactly the same argument levelled against them and be expected to check any and all uploads for copyright infringment.
“This is one form of piracy that I can’t support.”
No one cares if you want to use services that deliver files with slow speeds and much less content than Usenet. BTW, those public trackers that you use, as well as offering slow services laced with fake files are also run at a profit that comes from ad revenue – profit derived from enabling piracy in other words. Better stop using them.
You don’t know anything about the subject of Usenet so please stop making yourself look like a complete know nothing and don’t comment.
You think pro pirates think it’s a good idea to pay money and recieve a service equivalent to what they’d get for free through torrents? LOL, no, people pay because Usenet is far superior to any p2p system around – because your new here you wouldn’t know of course.
@28 good work on updating the stand up for rights file for all @ 30 yes I have researched useNeXt since back in Kazaa days and they are over 4% of total net traffic and possibly up to 15% as of last year early but yes they do send collection people on you & yes the intention is to get you to sign up and wind up paying for a year + but it is good also as they provide you the password to the rar files if they are password protected which is very valuable itself if you lost or don’t have the password but if you don’t have money to pay for a yearly account, I woudl advise some other way to download
@33 having Usenet run a p2p ed2k server is very good acually. Its kind of like having google help for ed2k. The free.usenet and useneXt 2 servers (recently added maybe a year ago?) have been top servers for ed2k helping out and many thanks indeed
http://torrentfreak.com/bitlord-v2-released-now-supports-edonkey/someone needs to do this but make ad ware free
If Usenet providers stop providing warez, they won’t get any customer at all and anyway most time now things are on bittorrent before they reach usenet.
The worse than nazi scums should focus on destroying fuckers like rabbidshit and gagaupload instead.
http://torrentfreak.com/bitlord-v2-released-now-supports-edonkey/
wow that above goes to the wrong article, feel free to edit post but yeah here is the right one someone needs to make more of these programs that do this but are adware free
@@ AnarchyNOW (oh look at me, I’m an anarchist!)
“If Usenet providers stop providing warez, they won’t get any customer at all and anyway most time now things are on bittorrent before they reach usenet.”
As usual your posts demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge regarding what your talking about.
-Seeing as Usenet started in the early 80′s and initially hosted no files whatsoever I don’t know how you could think that. Usenet is still used for simply exchanging text messages – not that you’d know this of course.
-Usenet providers don’t provide any content, warez or otherwise, this is determined by users.
-As far as pretimes Useenet is slower than the fastest 10 to 15 trackers on average because they autoupload releases direct from scene FTPs however on average Usenet is faster, usually by hours, than any public tracker.
BTW, wishing for anarchy makes you look retarded. None of the corporate structures that enable you to post messages on here would be possible under anarchy such as the computer you’re using, the ISP your paying and the internet backbone your message used to make it here. Why don’t you move to Afghanistan – sure it’s not anarchy perse but the sh!thole is about what you’d expect under susch a system. Hopefully you’d die there, we can only dream.
“http://torrentfreak.com/bitlord-v2-released-now-supports-edonkey/someone needs to do this but make ad ware free”
Jesus some people are idiots – ever hear of Shareaza?
You should just stick to adware seeing as you’re apparently too dense to read about alternatives yourself or find teh best apps and such…
Funny, I can distinctly remember several ISP adverts in the UK that all said things like, “Super-fast broadband, download music in seconds and movies in minutes!”
So why is UseNEXT in particular being targetted? Could it be their open defiance of the extortionists who cannot look after their own property?
@chris crocket
You had me on board right up until you starting wishing death upon others.
#41 Chris: “-Seeing as Usenet started in the early 80’s and initially hosted no files whatsoever I don’t know how you could think that. Usenet is still used for simply exchanging text messages – not that you’d know this of course.”
Sorry, but technically that’s inaccurate. Usenet, in its original inception was implemented with UUCP (unix-to-unix copy), a store-and-forward system. Knowing it first hand, as I was a UUCP node administrator in the 80ies.
UUCP was used to exchange *files*. UUCP e-mail was just an overlay on top of the basic infrastructure… which is no surprise because e-mail messages were just files too, just with those funny UUCP path addresses.
Later versions of Usenet (TCP based), switched from UUCP to the IP-based NNTP protocol. But there too, everything is a file (messages and binary stuff), and NNTP servers still store-and-forward those files back and forth among them and to the clients.
As @Peer points out in #23, this is the crux of the issue isn’t it? Anonymity and security are not illegal. GEMA equates “anonymity” to “illegal exchange” but that’s like equating hand guns to bank robbery.
UseNeXT proudly provides anonymity just as Colt proudly provides guns. You can use it as a weapon for free speech or to rob a bank. UseNeXT is not responsible.
Check out online-degree-schools.net
I think it will help some of you.
Let me point you to the fact that GEMA isnt a performing rights group only. This company of dark national-socialist origins (formerly known as STAGMA) also handles recording rights, broadcasting rights and whatever musical rights they can think of.
All you torrent users are uploading as you download. No matter how quickly you pull the completed file during your leaching practices you will have uploaded file chunks. In Germany there are scumbags recording your IP address and touting them around rights holders and lawyers ready to go on fishing expeditions in the UK.
Same for emule.
Nobody can chase me when i use the USENET, my uploads are by proxy server and I am not breaking any UK laws by downloading vast swathes of music, wares, movies.
Bert, you’re supposed to upload stuff to Usenet as well for the system to work. Stop being such a leech. ;-)
@10
“Who pays for usenext anyway? There are better providers you know…noobs”
You are just like the other big headed wank turds out there on the internet. You were all noobs at one point but a bit of knowledge in that wanky brain of yours and you think you are MR Know-it-all.
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